Through my life I’ve came to accept certain beliefs over others, sometimes without clear reasons as to why. Eventually, I began to look for reasons for belief x or belief y. I found these reasons, but also found out that they rested on other beliefs without reasons. So, there came my first problem, when I had adopted (unknowingly) a position of evidentialism (the view everything we believe must have evidence). Beliefs depended on other beliefs.
After encountering infinite regress, I began to adopt a foundationalist (all knowledge is founded on a few self-evident truths) view of knowledge. I could base all my beliefs on a few tautologies (i.e. certainly and trivially true statements, such as x=x), which other beliefs where deducible from. However, I soon found not all knowledge could be deduced in such a way. For instance, there is no tautology which shows that your sense-data (knowledge you obtain from your senses, like sight, hearing, taste, etc) is true.
Later, I adopted a coherentist (the theory that a consistent and simply explanation is true) view of knowledge. I thought that Ocham’s Razor (explanations should be as simple as possible and no simpler) and coherency were reasons enough for beliefs. But, I soon realized I couldn’t accept such a view. Multiple beliefs could be true and there would be no universal standard for what made reasons for beliefs good as opposed to other reasons for beliefs. Also, coherentism couldn’t explain why Ocham’s Razor works.
As of now, I’ve adopted a somewhat ambiguous view on reasons and beliefs. My beliefs are that of a metaphysical naturalist. I believe everything is natural (as opposed to supernatural). I go further as to be a physicalist. Which means I believe everything is reducible to the physical (can be described in principle by physics). I’ve come to such beliefs due to their simplicity and how well they work at describing the universe. Rather pragmatic reasons, I must say.
My beliefs change frequently, as I review the reasons for them. (Well, at least on deep philosophical issues. On everyday matters I can be more dogmatic, unfortunately.) My intention with this website is to give you the reasons for my ever changing beliefs.
Sincerely,
D. Martin